Friday, September 05, 2008 Cebu hosts RP’s best By Marian C. Baring Sun.Star Staff Reporter
THE Milo Little Olympics is going national.
This was announced yesterday by Milo executive Pat Goc-ong yesterday at the launch of the 13th edition of the Milo Little Olympics, which will open today at the Cebu City Sports Center.
Milo has been a regional competition ever since and for this first time, Milo is mulling on taking it on a national level, where the regional winners battle it out in the national finals.
This is set for October of next year and Cebu is being eyed as the host.
“Cebu is the most accessible venue for the participants from Luzon and Mindanao. We are confident that Cebu is capable of hosting a competition that is national is scope since it is the best-organized Little Olympics all over the country,” Goc-ong said in yesterday’s Scoop Forum at Baseline restaurant.
Aside from the new tournament, Milo is given a new challenge as they will now play a vital role in the country’s objective for an Olympic gold.
Earlier this week, the three agencies—Philippine Olympic Committee (POC), Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) and the Department of Education (DepED) had decided to align their sporting programs together as they think it’s only fitting if they really want to finally win the ever evasive Olympic gold and Milo was invited to jump into the same ship.
“We are continuously coordinating with the country’s sporting bodies PSC, POC and DepED to have our program aligned with that of the three organizations so that we will have a common direction,” Goc-ong added.
The PSC and POC have also re-identified specific sports that they feel are Olympic gold medal potentials.
POC have asked the DepEd to include these events, some of these weightlifting and archery, in the schedule of events in the Palaro and will most likely be added in the Milo Olympics roster of activities as well.
5,000 athletes
Meanwhile, today, more than 5,000 athletes from more than 200 schools from all over the Visayas will be converging at the Cebu City Sports Center for the opening of the annual sporting meet.
Oranizers said that there may be a decline in the participation of the public schools, but it did not jeopardize the continuous increase of the participating schools as more private schools and out-of-town participants are joining this year.
“Some public schools begged off because apparently, the collection from the PTA this year is scarce and it will be hard for the public schools to send athletes to the competitions,” said organizer Ricky Ballesteros.
Nonetheless, the Milo Little Olympic will still be playing host to some 5,000 athletes in the two-weekend meet.
Today, 19 cheer dance teams will be battling it out for the top plum after the muses strut their stuff.
Suspension
The opening will be attended by Nandu Nandkishore, the Pakistani chairman and CEO of Nestle Philippines; Dr. Lorna Rances; DepEd Cebu superintendent, Dr. Recaredo Borgonia and DepEd 7 regional head.
Meanwhile, in a recent turn of events, football champion, Abellana National School (ANS) will not be defending its title this year, after having been slapped with a yearlong suspension by DepED.
This stemmed after ANS competed in the Philippine Olympic Festival, and represented the Cebu province instead of the city. In the memorandum, DepEd suspended coach Francis Ramirez and the entire team for not asking permission to compete in the POF, since they had to miss classes for the event.
